Articles By: Jamin Goggin
Mirrors reflect reality. In our spiritual journey God uses many things to mirror to us the reality of our heart. The book unChristian is a mirror (a full-length mirror, at that) to the Christian church. It reflects not only external realities but also the truth of our heart. As the church, we are called to notice all the details that we find displayed on the full-length mirror in front of us.
Adrian Van Kaam offers three distinctions regarding how we might respond to exposure of our heart: willlessness, willfulness, and willingness.[1] When the mirror reflects hypocrisy, lack of care, hostility toward others, ignorance, polarization, and judgment, those who are will-less see these blemishes and despair of such reality. They feel hopelessly incapable of enacting any change. They may even avert their eyes from the mirror and convince themselves that what they saw was an illusion.
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[1] Adrian Van Kaam, The Art of Existential Counseling. Van Kaam’s discussion of will-lessness, willfulness, and willingness can be found in chapter 4. Van Kaam uses these categories to make specific distinctions, and the analysis I have offered moves beyond the bounds of Van Kaam’s definitions and explanations. It must also be noted that Dr. John Coe’s teaching has informed the use of these categories when talking about the Christian life.
